WarHammer 40k Tau story: Mission one
by Major Monkey Man
Summary: a story about the Shas'ui of a fire warrior squad belonging to a newly formed Sept. they are in a war on an imperial planter currently being over run by Necrons. this is their first battle. sorry if its a bit lengthy and the grammar's a bit off, this is my first story. i hope you enjoy and leave comments. i will be working on part two.


New Expansions

In this story I might use some Tau langue. Here are some translations:

Tor'lek-about a metre

(Location: tau orca drop ship of Sept Va'casha, currently heading towards imperial world of Tashiey, currently in a global war between the currently posted imperial guard regiment stationed there and an undiscovered Necron Dynasty that has arose from hibernation and is currently in process of trying to liberate the world from the Guard. The Ethereals of the high council have decided that should the Necrons control this world it could drive a devastating invasion into a very important supply line within the sector and expand within the tau empires territory. Thus because of this important mission the Ethereals of the high council have chosen to send a Sept to extinguish this threat before it can grow and expand. The Sept in question is a newly created Sept breed with a special adaptation. Copying some of the similar ideas of space marine chapters of the imperium, the fire warriors and other soldiers of this Sept have been given special training and biological adaptations to their skills in combat. These biological adaptations, unlike increasing the physical properties of their host, they have been focused on creating warriors of extreme agility and speed, improving them in combat in a similar tactical way as experienced elder warriors. This will improve their abilities in hand-to-hand combat. If the tau defeat both the Necrons and imperial guard of this world it will be seen as a pass in their first trial and will be rewarded with this planet becoming their homeworld, as well as re-naming the planet after its Sept, and a new generation of Kroot and Vespid from Tau itself to grow and breed there to join their Sept. in time they too will revive special biological changes to improve combat techniques. This is the Septs first battle and will be watched closely be the Ethereals of the high council. Transmission Sent)

I breathed a sigh of relief as Novillus came and sat down next to me. Strange, that my best friend should be a Gue'vesa, and a space marine at that, but I wasn't complaining. He got bored of talking with his squad and often liked to chat. For a human he had picked up our langue amazingly quick and was the most interesting person, tau Kroot Vespid or Gue'vesa I've ever meet. He was in a war with the Sept of Sa'cea when his homeworld was destroyed by the chaos chapter of emperor's children. Half the world was swallowed by the warp storm that brought them: the other half was burned and razed to the ground. No transport was able to reach them in time to take them back to defend their home or was destroyed on its way. Cut off on an alien world, the surviving members of the Crimson stars chapter (a child chapter of the Crimson fist) were forced to surrender themselves. For years they were analysed, trained, preached and eventually converted to the greater good. This was how we learned their ways of biological change and were kept in secret until now for special use. Without Kroot/Vespid to aid use they would be fitting for the role. His armour mirrored the colours of mine after a good repaint on his armour, the Gue'vesa insisted on keeping the badges and symbols of their old chapter. "How you doing my blue friend?" he said causally as he sat next to me. The size comparison between him and me was hilarious to look at. It was like a greater Knarloc be-friending a termagant. Ironic really, both of us pumped full of chemicals and enhancements, one built to incredible speed and agility, the other built like a tank, then covered in layer upon layer of armour to top it off. To image anything getting through that thick armour was unimaginable. Mine was changed from normal tau armour so the clothing between the main armour plates changed to be more flexible.

"Approaching planet's atmosphere. Prepare for landing soon."

"So, big day huh?" I chuckled "yeah, guess you could say that" "so, have you ever fought Necrons before? I mean, back before the big event" the "event" was our way of meaning the destruction of Novillus's Homeworld. He looked down, as if remembering a difficult memory. "Umm…. Yeah, we did. Some planet not too far from us became swarmed with the things after some stupid merchants or miners or something awoke the. Because we were closest we were sent first, but more as a kind of distraction until they managed to send the Space Wolves in to finish the job. There were far too many of them for even our entire chapter. The fact that that many beings were hiding just a couple feet underground and no one noticed was shocking. You'd think there sensors would be better huh?" "Well, on the bright side, they said this wasn't a major dynasty, so it shouldn't be too bad" he looked up, not facing me but straight forward. He seemed tense. "Don't get too cocky" he almost whispered. I felt nervous. Usually Novillus was so cool and collective. Anything that made him tense was not something to joke about. I looked around the ship to see what we would be playing. In terms of Gue'vesa, there was Novillus's squad: he was the sergeant of the devastator squad, a squad designed solely to handling heavy weapons such as Lascannons, heavy plasma Cannons, heavy bolters, rocket launchers, etc. as Sergeant of his squad though he didn't carry heavy weapons: he carried a regular storm bolter in one hand and a big, mean looking power fist on the other. Seeing as devastator squads were pretty much defenceless in close combat, I guess he filled in for protecting the squad in hand-to-hand or near by opponents. Among them were two squads of marines, ten men in each squad including a sergeant, one equipped with a rocket launcher, one with a flamer. There was also one squad of assault marines, and one command squad (that was which Novillus was promised a position in should one of them die or be promoted themselves and Novillus survived this battle). In my Sept we had two squads of fire warriors (including my squad), two broadsides covering us, one three man squad of elite XV25 stealth suits (who would stay in ambush until ordered otherwise) and a XV8 Crisis battle suit commander who should be briefing us any minute now, plus a three done squad of sniper drones, plus of course a controller. There was also a piranha that would swoop over the enemy to provide supporting fire but only briefly at a time to avoided being shot down. Stationed on the ground already was a pathfinder team who would fill us in on the enemy's location. Suddenly the commander was at the centre of the ship, standing on a small platform to make himself look big and important. He was holding his helmet under his arm to appear motivational. He coughed and every head turned. Novillus stood and returned to his squad.

The commander briefed us in a deep but strong voice "alright men. Today is our day of judgment. Today we will prove to the high council that we are worthy of this world. We have endured trained and enhancements that would crush the average fire warrior. But we are not average fire warriors. We are the next generation of Tau. We surprised these imperial corpse worshipers and destroy these soulless robots. Today, we let the enemy know that the improvements of the Tau are unstoppable, just as is the Greater Good. You have been given special talents to improve combat capabilities, now I want you to go out there and use them! Show these mislead souls the strength and might of the Greater Good!" cheers and roars of approval and readiness from the crowd. The commander smiled at the sight of his army. This was his feeling of power; I could read it in his face. He looked like a proud father. Now that I thought about, this man would probably lead our Sept in the future. Seeing as this was our first war he was highest ranking officer due to his scores in training. Mine were apparently slightly above average, seeing as I was Shas'ui of my squad. I was to lead them and execute orders to my squad. I looked around at my team. The colours of our Sept impressed me. Being a new Sept would confuse Imperial records and so would our "new skills" our main arm or was jet black, with the clothing between being bone white. This basically our colour scheme, exempt for our Sept markings which are blood red. Just the colour of our armour would pierce into the enemy moral of the guard. As Shas'ui of my squad, my helmet and part of my main shoulder pad were white instead of black to signify my rank. In my squad were elven fire warriors and two drones, one acting as a shield drone the other a gun drone. The commander filled us in on the plan: currently a major imperial barracks has just started defending as an invasion force of Necrons is on the move towards them. It is vital that the barracks is not destroyed as it contains information that we need, as well as the possibility of recruiting of Gue'vesa guardsmen. As of now the barracks to fighting off the Necron scouts: mainly just scarabs trying to scramble and unwire there tanks and other vehicles as well as a single tomb spider. Nothing they couldn't handle on their own. We will be dropped off in a valley 12,000 meters north, between the barracks and the approaching army of robots. We are to distract the main force while the guard are able to move their vehicles into the heart of the force. If this is successful, the guard may agree to convert for our help. If not, with the expected loss of most of their tanks and elite forces the barracks should be easy for taking. In case they decline, we have three squads of XV15 stealth suits and one squad of XV25 stealth suits surrounding and infiltrating the perimeter awaiting further orders. My squad and I load are weapons and ready ourselves. I and the other commanding officers were given close-combat weapons. Special beam-like thin swords that were light fast blades. We were given two, one on each hip. Each fire warrior had one, as well as his usual pulse rifle. He also had three short tactical knife replicas. They were more throwing knifes. I had eight. The XV8 crisis battle suit commander and specially designed sticky hunter missiles. These were perfect for getting through armour. They found there target due to extreme targeting systems (programed from ships floating just in orbit), then grabbed and stuck onto the enemy with amazing strong claw-like hooks. The commander set them off when he chose to. So, for instance, while the enemy was still advancing (and was out of range) the missiles would latch onto the target, sometimes unnoticed (due to their small size) and as the force came into range, detonate them so fire warriors could pick off the surviving units. The piranha had a similar missiles better used for vehicles, as well a special drop bombs it could drop onto crowds of infantry or EMP one for light vehicle's. The broadsides and special ammo that was not only strong enough to go through several targets, but could be set on pathways that they would follow. If the pathway crossed at the same time, the two beams colliding would result in a devastating explosion. As for the Gue'vesa space marines, most of their weaponry were relics of their chapter. This was gonna be an interesting fight.

The ship doors opened and we all piled out. We had limited time to setup our positions and standing. Luckily Necrons were slow but marched in massive hoards. After a short time we had set up our positions. The two fire warriors' squads' side-by-side halfway along the valley, just at the very bottom of a slope that rose as it went up the valley. If we needed to retreat, we would move up the hill and gain even more height advantage. Roughly ten feet behind the broadsides sunk their feet firmly into ground. If we retreated, we would run behind the broadsides, which would stay. It was suicide for them, but not as much when you've got tin rail guns on your shoulders and the hands of the suit have been modified similar to that of a dreadnaught. The commander (though not technically commander until after this mission, just the pilot of the battle suit and in charge of this mission) lay slightly in-between and behind them, blocking the small gap down the middle. His suit, equipped with the special missiles mounted on his shoulder, a high tech stronger plasma rifle and attached to his right forearm, his left a shield generator, and his mechanical arms were like that of less powerful more flexible power fist, giving powerful two handed close-combat capabilities. On the slope even with the XV8 battle suit and a few meters to his right was Novillus's squad. Mirroring them to the left of the was the sniper drone team, both placed to add supporting fire. Behind them was the piranha and the assault marine team, who would glide over us and in front the moment the enemy advance came too close. In front of us fire warrior squads was a marine squad each. So basically, the space marine squads would cover the assault marines, and we were covering the marine squad, and in turn were being covered by the Broadside suits, which were being covered by the XV8 crisis battle suit and the devastator squad. The stealth suits were lying in wait.

It was quite; every man and Fire Warrior steadied his breathing and awaited the signal. Two squads of pathfinders were supposed to lure the Necrons towards our location. All we heard was the occasional voice of the commander over the radio trying to connect with the pathfinder team. There was no response every time. Finally a voice "Commander, prepare for massive assault. Enemy force size is astounding. Pathfinder team 1 is deceased. I remain of my squad. Coming around to posted position" we saw a lone pathfinder turn around the corner in the valley. Two, maybe three more steps and he would have been home safe. Unfortunately, not everyone is that lucky. At the last second a beam of bright green light, whose source must have come from behind the view in the valley, shot at amazing speed into and through the pathfinder chest. Bits of blood and organ's flew out as he hit the floor like a ragdoll. His transition was cut off. There was silence again for a brief moment. The commander said over radio to drop ship "path finder squad 2 deceased" he then bowed his head, looked up again and said "alright men, ready your weapons!" as he said this a small shake was felt all around. Again. Again. Something was moving, getting closer. The sky to their right (the north) and an eerie black sky of clouds, slowly marching towards them. In the distance, there was a green light shooting straight up into the mass of black clouds. The shaking was getting worse. Then, from the edge of view in the valley, a massive clack mechanical leg with green outline and golden markings slammed into the ground, shaking the marines in front. The commander wasted no time. From his should silently two small missiles, no bigger than my hand, each shot out and glided quickly but silently along the valley, until eventually tapping into the front two legs of the Triarch Stalker. The moment they touch the legs they instantly deployed small legs that clamped them into place so firmly it almost made small dents in the them. The pilot of the Triarch didn't seem to notice until he was halfway across the mouth of the valley. He stopped, looked up, as if sensing something, and turn his hollow metal head inwards toward the valley. The soulless, dead eye seemed to scan the us, for a moment there was awkward silence between us. Then he started to turn the great lumbering spider-like contraption towards us, along with that huge gun mount underneath it.

"FIRE AT WILL!"

The commander shouted into his radio as his began firing his plasma rifle. Another good thing about the grappling hook missile was the they emitted a small red light in case the commanders trigger jammed or was lost. It was easier than his first shooting practice. One shot, not even thought about, and the knee joint of the right leg of the Necron Arachnid was blown apart as the main leg fell like a collapsed pillar of a crumbling building. The Triarch stumbled as it recoiled by the unexpected impact, and held strong onto its left leg, putting all its weight onto it to supports itself, ignoring the sixteen bolt guns firing into the driver. Just as The Triarch finally re-corrected its self, looking ready to fire at marines before it, a well-aimed Krakk missile shot pounded into the red glowing weak spot on the stalkers leg, blowing it to pieces. Supporting on only four small, thin legs the stalker, putting incredible weight on its hinges, prepared to aim. Just as I thought the green lights of death would aim for me and my squad, the swoosh of the over-head flying piranha flew at the driver of the Necrons mechanical monstrosity. Just as I thought the pilot might be doing an unnecessary kamikaze on its first mission, it jerked straight upward, letting go of the EMP Bomb it had been holding. This cause the entire walker to fall flat and roll onto its back. The driver started climbing over his deactivated machine when a neat little hole appeared in his forehead. I looked into his eyes as he flopped dead. The eyes that I once thought were soulless and black turned even darker. At first you wouldn't have realised it without a good close-up look, but in those dead soulless eyes was the slight tinge of dark green. A quick inspection confirmed that they were not a listed Dynasty as we expected. The main armour colour was a tinged gold with blackout line. The Necron symbol on its chest was a dark purple. Within seconds two squads of Necron warriors bearing the same Dynasty rounded the corner and opened fire.

The broadsides didn't hesitate to open fire. The Necrons numbered eight in each squad, walking slowly towards us firing there green lights of destruction. I aimed carefully down my scope, and fired at the green weapon of a warrior. The green light held inside the glass case exploded as the warrior holding it dropped to his knees and fell as his life source drained from his mechanical body. I made a mental note of one target eliminated, and heard a sequel next to me and turned in horror and the fire warrior next to me dropped to ground with a whole sprouting out of his thigh. I shouted over my radio "troop down, requiring medical drone" "medical drones are on their way Shas'ui, bear with us" I aimed down the sight of my scope only just too late to see a warrior sink his baton into the crack of a marines chest and his shoulder pad. The Gue'vesa stayed on his knees screaming in pain as I shot through the shoulder of the golden warrior. It stumbled back in recoil, but managed to stay upright, look up, see where my shot had come from, and took aim.

In a situation like this, where whoever shots first has a chance of living, microseconds count. That why I didn't hesitate. I aimed for the glowing green target, but when the muzzle of the gun was aimed me it was harder to hit. So instead my shot went higher, into the living/dead robots upper-right chest. This was powerful enough to send it on it back, making its shot wide and zooming meters over the head of the broad suit behind me. If we had been using the same weapon, it probably would have ended with the both of us injured, but that the ethereal and high council that my weapon was a high-powered sniper-rifle. The Necron lay on its back, trying hard to see if it could Finnish off the injured marine laying on his knee holding his wound on his collar-bone. Its head was completely separated from its torso from a swift, high powered beam that could only have come from a sniper drone. The appocrathery of the command squad (which was placed in-between the two marine squads) wasted no time getting to injured marine. Only six Necrons remained, with the loss of two marines and one fire warrior (in the other fire warrior squad). As we picked of the remaining Necrons a medical drone came and dragged away my injured warrior. I told his to stay strong as he was dragged away moaning. I injured another two warriors when the squads had been diminished and watching in horror as another, much larger wave advanced. The other thing that shook me was, with the major enhancements to my hearing, the wheels of large tanks, preferably leman russ'es, drove along the dry dirt plain towards the mouth of the valley.

I watched the advancing force with fear. A five unit squad of immortals, carrying their heavy twin powered guns that would slice through fire warriors like me with ease. The immortals were just part of the escort though. On each side there stood, or floated more of, a Destroyer. Behind this wall of attack was a Ghost Ark. The Ghost Ark was a transport vehicle of sorts. Inside it carried ten Necron warriors and a Necron lord. The immortals and destroyers were in range, but boters seem to just bounce off them, and only well aimed/lucky pulse rifle shots did anything. The destroyer on our right flank was suddenly missing its elbow as the huge Gauss cannon or whatever it was dropped to the ground. With the floating monstrosity missing its weapon a courageous or just plain stupid marine took his chance. He ran straight up to confused, damaged destroyer and stuck a device unto its chest. After this he ran straight back to his squad, this mission costing him shot through his right shin. It was confusing, and even one of the immortals looked at the device sprouting from the destroyers chest. The device beeped one, twice, then, boom.

At first I thought it was a melta bomb. I was wrong. It was so much more powerful. It could only be of some sort of new gadget the ethereally wanted testing. The explosion obliterated what was left of the destroyer and took out half of one of the immortals, its entire left arm missing, making its weapon too heavy to carry. It lumbered its weapon as it dragged is heavy death ray towards the closest living being to engage in close-combat. The rest of the immortals, however, were able to fire accurately well, taking out about three more space marines and four fire warriors, as well as destroying one of the railguns on one of the broadsides. At the same time a transmission came from the assault marine squad "engaging in combat-flayed ones trying to flank us (screech) needing back up" the commander called in over radio "Battle suit XV8 engaging in close-combat support." I didn't really focus. Had to beat these slow but sure robots. The only thing I noted of it was that we weren't getting the plasma rifle shots from behind to aid to the massacre. There was a shout of pain as the plasma cannon user in Novillus's squad was obliterated by the remaining destroyer. In return a Lascannons shot pierced its torso, but it seemed undisturbed by this, and continued firing. I heard the gun drone in my squad explode no more than Tor'lek behind me. It was chaos. Fighters who were Robot, Living, and in the middle were firing at their enemy's with screams and motivational quotes as their comrades fell beside them. I noticed the Ghost Ark halt as its crew unloaded. I tried to see if I could get some shots in before they embarked and were a threat, but there were too many of them and my shots were wide. I did a quick scan of who was still standing. Of my squad both drones were out, and we had seven of our twelve original warriors (including me) the squad next to us had only a gun drone and five fire warriors, Shas'ui down. The marines in front of us were down to only four marines, one was the sergeant, carrying a brightly coloured banner on his back as he called for the marines to hold their ground and believe that if they were to fall, so it should be in the name of the Greater Good. It wasn't very promising thou, what with one marine holding his stomach with one hand and firing with the other, and another on his back with a massive scorch mark on his left side, but still firing with his remaining arm. Fighting till the end. Honourable. The broadside behind us had a nasty looking mark on its thigh, and more importantly was missing an arm, which would be painful seeing as it went down to the shoulder, but with both shoulder-mounted Weapons still firing away. But as I turned to the other I saw just in time to see a green bolt hit its collar-bone, causing it to pull one foot out of the ground to re-august itself, and as it did so was shot straight in the stomach and its neck was singed. It lost its footing and its other foot was pulled from the ground through debris into the as the big hulking armoured suit fell on its back with a load pound into the ground. Its head lobed to one side, as if looking at me through the visor, the red lights still beaming, I read the pilots only thought. "Help. Me." I radioed over to assistance. "XV88 Broadside covering squad two is down and requiring medical attention." I turned to scan the Devastor marine and the sniper drone team. In Novillus's squad, the one who was carrying the plasma cannon was facedown, unmoving. There would be no saving him. Novillus was grazed on his knee, and looked like a had had a couple of very close calls: there was a mark on the side of his helmet and sitting ontop of his should that looked like the beam had come so close it left a print. The heavy bolter and Lascannon carrier (who by the way was an amazing shot) looked untouched. The one who was firing the rocket launcher was down on one knee, though am not sure if that was for less kick-back or because of an injury. They were doing better than the sniper team. Only one of the three drones seemed to be working perfectly. One was down (well, there was a group of scattered parts that could only have been the missing drone) and the other was sunk into the sand below it. The controller was gripping onto his machine tight, breathing heavily as he punched in numbers slowly with all he could muster. After all, his entire left leg was scorched off and the wound extended up to part of his upper-left pelvis. A medical drone was behind him, trying to assist him, but he kept waving it off occasionally to try and type in more codes. I looked forward again helplessly as I saw that most of the Warrior were exiting there transport. It looked like doom itself, sitting up slowly before finally finishing it. They would move forward and to replace the three fallen (and one trying desperately to try and swing its heavy gun comically with one arm at the four clumped marines) and two destroyed Destroyers: one obliterate into thousands of tiny pieces, the other cut in half by broadside shots. Just as the twelve Warriors were finally retrieving their weapons, they were engulfed in fire.

The Powerful joint-cannon blast from the Leman Russ battle-tanks had sent the Ghost Ark spinning, throwing or even trampling some of its own warriors. It flew into the side of the canyon wall with a speed and persistence that could not be stooped. The impact was strong enough that the hulking Ark exploded with a bright and devastatingly hot fire ball the moment it came into contact with the hard rock of the canyon wall. There was no way the driver, a Necron lord, could have survived it. The two blasts from the Imperial tanks and the explosion of the impact would have incinerated the living metal. The shots from the tanks destroyed two warriors and the Ghost Arks impact had crushed one and crippled another, as well as singeing a few others from the explosion. But still, even still, a force of about eight of the Golden robots advanced wielding there green death rays. As they approached I saw one of the immortals slowly piece itself back together and another (who was just a torso with a head and arms) slowly crawled to its separated legs. I shot it through the neck and head three times to make sure that it didn't re-assemble. But our efforts were almost useless as fallen Necrons began re-piecing themselves together again. I stared in disbelief, until I looked closer. In the middle of this mass of self-repairing robots and the ones still advancing, I saw him. There, he stood, taller than the others, and so much more grand, was a Necron Overlord. In one hand he held his ancient but impressive and massive looking scythe; in the other he held a glowing green orb that shone brightly with power. The resurrection orb was responsible for the now six more Necron warriors that joined the wave and fell in line with other squads. The Fourteen warriors, an overlord, and two immortals advanced in a filed line: the fourteen warriors, split into two squads, lined up seven after seven, marched forward, followed closely behind by two immortals who acted like body guards for the overlord on either side of him. I looked to the Leman Russ tanks, who were now joined by a third, were firing at something still advancing from north of the valley. Two Imperial sentinels joined them and turned into the valley to flank the Necrons wave. It would take them a while though: the Necron wave was already half-way through the valley towards us. I heard the commander radio in "Flank secure. Re-taking previous position. Status report on current situation." Novillus filled him in as he re-took his position. He quickly came up with a brilliant plan that, despite the situation, could actually work. If it did succeed, we might eradicate the Necron overlord: the commander of the Necron invasion of this planet, and the leader of an Entire Dynasty.

Our two Fire warrior squads joined to make one big squad of twelve plus a single gun drone. This was, of course, me and four of them dispatched from the others into a suicide mission. The remaining broadside, devastor squad, the eight fire warriors (and gun drone) my squad had left behind, the commander and the occasional shot from the remaining sniper drone wasted in mountains of ammunition to cover us. They weren't really shooting to kill: just supplying suppressing fire while me and my "elite" squad of four fire warriors headed pass the marines holding their post and trying to supply a kind-of covering fire, straight into the Necron wave. As we past them the sergeant joined us, ready to cut metal with his chainsword. I noticed he had left his banner behind: I knew that the truth was that was probably the last he would see of his squad, as he would most likely die soon, and the three remaining marines would probably be over-run. This was still to be expected, even if the plan did work perfectly. He had left his banner in the ground for his marines to defend to the death, their last objective before their sacrifice for the Greater Good. They would slow them down. Just as the warriors at the front began to open fire at us, the middle of the two lines of living metal exploded. The piranha flew past, and u-turned in the air to prepare to drop another load. With half of the warriors scattered, the assault marines took their chance. Three assault marines, one a sergeant with a power-sword and Storm shield, dropped in from the sky, dropping in lightly from their jet packs, and wasted no time engaging the Golden warriors in close-combat. This cleared a path for us, directly to the Overlord and his two Immortal guards. We would have to be quick: the assault marines were committing suicide, engaging this many warriors at once, being surrounded and being few in numbers, one of the marines was already sporting a Brocken arm from the battle they must have had with the flayed ones. Like the marines, whose last stand would come soon, they were sacrificing themselves to buy time for us. We couldn't waste it.

Now, defeating a Necron Overlord was no easy task. Certain percussions must be made and planned out precisely. The only way to do any definite damage to him was to outsmart him. An overlord spent his time before and during battle thinking through every possibility and outcome to devise what would be the best course of action. Something that would probably be necessary when fighting tricky elder. Fortunately, however, nothing in the universe could have prepared him for what was coming next. A squad of XV25 Stealth-suits materialized behind him and opened fire: they had had plenty of time to check for weak spots and notches in his armour, completely undetected. Three sets of weapons fired their entire rounds into him while the four of my fire warriors, two each, split off from me and the marine sergeant to jump his immortal guards. The immortals would be slow, they would not. All the same I and the Gue'vesa Sergeant ran straight towards the Necrons leader. As we neared him I saw my men on each side draw their combat weapons to take out the immortals. As they attacked them the overlord turned and jabbed his evil-looking war scythe straight into one of the Stealth suits with ease, pulling it out to swing at another as the un-saveable veteran fell to his knees, then onto into unforgiving rocky ground. The overlord had swung at the stealth suit on his right, missing due to his slowness, both stealth suits still firing rapidly to harass him with a swarm of blue bullets. While he did this I managed to kick his left hand upwards, throwing his precious orb into the air. As he turned to try and catch it as the brave sergeant (obviously with a death wish) spear-tackled to big, heavy robot to ground, catching him off balance. I caught the orb in a two-handed catch and tossed it to one of the stealth-suits, who caught it with one hand and gave a quick nod in approval before melding into the horizon. I turned to see the overlord stood up, the marine sergeant dangling off the end of his spear-scythe thingy, clutching the weapon scythe just before where it had ruptured through his stomach, the look of pain on his face excoriating. The overlord stared at me as he stood straight, flung his weapon sideways, sending the as-good-as dead sergeant flying toward the mass of Necron warriors still fighting assault marines in close-combat. He then turned and aimed his death scythe at the remaining Stealth suit (who was still firing the last of his rounds into the overlord) and fired a single shot into his face. The rain of blue bullets had stopped. Finally he turned to me, walking slowly, purpose and hate in those dark, soulless eyes. He raised his weapon, the green light charging and glowing brighter quickly, a solid charge that would hit me in the chest and end it. Just as the Overlord, his Golden armour shadowed with green from the light of his energy weapon, was about to release the devastating beam of death into my chest and end it, a fist that could hold me like a small toy impacted with his face with a force so powerful it could send a warboss flying.

The overlord staggered, fell to onto his left knee, using his empty left arm to support himself, holding his weapon sideways with his right. As he pushed himself back up with his left arm the commander shoved his right arm away with his left and connected another punch to his face with a right hook. The impact, even more prepared this time, sent the overlord down on both knees, facing the canyon wall, his back facing me. As the commander (me facing his right side, him facing towards the valley mouth, back to his army) aimed his plasma rifle at the overlords head, stepped back a barely missed a swing from the overlords powerful weapon, recovering quicker than expected. Then the two faced off. The Necron swung, missed, shot in his right side by the plasma rifle. The shot seemed ineffective, as the overlord spun and swung again sideways at the commanders left side. The XV8 battle suit responded by gripping the Necrons right arm (the one carrying the scythe) with his right arm. He squeezed tight at the elbow, trying damage the overlords arm, weakening it in hopes of possibly twisting or ripping it off. Suddenly his left arm crossed over his right, pushing at the robots metal bicep, preventing it from digging its left arm any further into the stomach of his battle suit. Another inch and the heartless steel monster would be able to claw at the fleshy pilot inside, killing him. This stalemate held for a while, until the overlord managed to just aim the scythe loosely at the commander's head, the bright green light inside the weapon glowing brighter and charging quickly. One hit, at this range and with that power and angle, and the commander would have been done for. Luckily, the fast-planning commander knew that the plasma rifle attached to his left forearm did not need so long to charge up before firing, and three quick burst in-between the collarbone and the shoulder pad of the overlord had it re-adjusting its footing, wasting no time in beginning to recharge its death Scythe. Now there was nothing the commander could do, besides maybe a grappiling missile into the overlords face and blowing them both up. Luckily, he wouldn't need to. In the time that they had been fighting I had managed to sneak up behind the overlord, waiting until the perfect moment. When the overlord had re-adjusted its footing, I had somersaulted onto his shoulders, where I was standing now, both close combat weapons drawn the overlord looked up at me, two thin blue beam large dagger/small swords in each hand. Now, there were very few places where the overlord's thick armour didn't protect him. Everything else fired at him so far had done nothing, squat. However, due to paying attention in training, and careful observation, I had found a weakness. Everywhere was covered. Even his neck. Except for the front. He had a golden brace surrounding his neck, looking royal and serving as armour, except for the front where he needed mobility to move his head around. It was here, just below the chin that several important looking tubes connected into his head from his collar. I stabbed both my swords into the sides of his neck, then crossed them, cut several important looking tubes, sending sparks into the overlords face as he fell back and the commander released his grip and fired into his face as I leapt of the overlords shoulders, leaving behind a small tracking device in the slit behind his head in his neck brace should he survive. The overlords fell on his back and rolled onto his knees, clutching the loose wires dangling from his neck and spraying sparks into the ground. He looked at us before stabbing his scythe into the ground and faded into thin air as a plasma rifle shot hit the ground where he had been no more than a split second ago.

I and the commander turned to scene of the fighting between us and our comrades. About seven warriors remained as they marched toward the marines protecting their banner. The warriors didn't notice me, the commander or my comrades behind them as they marched, perfect for flanking one of them stayed behind as he slashed at the only remaining assault marine, keeping him lying on the floor in pain, taking his time. As the golden robot aimed his green ray of death at the fallen marine, a nice, neat blue mark appeared in the back of his head, and he fell to the ground. i gave a nod of approval at the fire warrior (one of the ones who had come with us on this suicide mission to defeat the overlord) and took account of them. The two who had gone after the immortal on our left flank had executed their goal perfectly. No scratches or marks. I couldn't even see where the other half of the not-so-immortal's corpse was. The other two hadn't done so well thou. One had a chunk of his right sleeve ripped off, a close call, while the other lay on the floor clutching his stomach, not so lucky. He was being held by his partner who had the ripped sleeve. He held him upright with one arm and put pressure on his partners wound with the other. There was no way he could make it. The immortals baton had sliced through him like air. The wound extended from the front of his stomach throughout his back. He had minutes, if not seconds. I kneeled down close to him while the other two fire warriors retrieved the wounded assault marine. I spoke to him softly.

"Rough day huh?" he breathed heavily while clutching his wound. He looked at me and nodded. He spoke with all the energy he could muster "yes….yes sir" I put my hand up to silence him. "Don't speak, you'll waste your energy" he nodded in response and kept breathing heavily. Looked down at his sympathetically. We'd all been given basic medical training: it didn't take a qualified doctor to know that he was a goner. It would be best not to let him die in sadness of gloom. I preached to him "brother, you have served us well your commitment will not be forgotten. I will put your name in my log and commit a hero's stature for your name and actions in battle. Your family will be proud of your sacrifice." I stood up, still looking down at him. I signalled his partner to do the same. He slowly rested his head down of the floor and stood up, giving a noble salute. I watched down as he breathed one of his last breaths. "For the Greater Good!" I cheered, and, in those red beeping lights, I felt him smile, just before he slowly rolled his head aside, and let go of a long breath. I and his partner saluted. The commander approached us, cradling the near-death marine in his right arm. He nodded, and I accepted. He then reached down and picked up the deceased fire warrior in his free arm. He nodded again to us before activating his jet pack and flying over the scene of battle back to the med team. I collected the three fire warriors and we ran forward at the horde of warriors, who were currently eating at the marines, bravely holding their ground with their last dying breath. As we ran, I pulled out my two close-combat beam sword-like things, one in each hand, and smiled. My comrades did the same. This would be fun.

Helvoto Galenus fired his bolter again at the nearest Necron. The pings of his bullets did almost nothing to damage them, and were useless deterring them as the relentless golden mechanical beings marched forward, some aiming their green life force rays at him and firing. Others walked forward as if he wasn't even there: he would be dead in soon anyway. No point wasting time on an already dead target. Looked to brother Antichodeus for support, but was disappointed. Antichodeus had suffered a near-fatal wound earlier, but had kept firing with the last of his strength. Helvoto had assumed he had bled out or was unconscious when his supporting fire had halted, but now he realized that a chunk of his fore-head was missing, showing the blackened bone of his skull. Galenus was on his own, but that did not stop him. He fired clip after clip into the approaching Necrons, roaring quotes of his of old company master "today I stand, alone or joined by comrades, I will defeat those who deny the Greater Good and its followers. I will stand here and fight until my last dying breath. The enemy will suffer until they have pulled every ounce of strength from me, and even then I will persist. I am among the Greater Goods finest, and I shall know no fear!" obviously, part of it was changed, praising the Greater Good instead of the emperor. But even still it gave him hope and stature and allowed him to keep fighting. Still, the Necrons advanced. He had to do something. Then, he spotted it. Rolled out of the arms of a fallen comrade, a flamer. That might be more effective. He ran, determined to reach it before the hulks living metal covered to much ground. He finally reached it, picked it up just as several flashes of green light hit the ground where it had been. The multiple impacts sent him onto his back. He looked in horror as the swarm had moved faster than he had predicated two warriors all aimed at him simultaneously. Simultaneously, however, each of them was decapitated by small blue thin beams of light. The four fire warrior's immediately set to work on the other warriors. Galenus picked up his flamer and screamed through his helmet "For the Greater Good!" as he at the golden Necrons and fired his flamer

After we sliced through the necks of two warriors, we jumped off and wasted no time in assaulting the other warriors. Two down, four to go. We split into two groups: Me and one fire warrior headed at a group of three while the other two assaulted a cluster of two after one had managed to re-assemble itself. As we ran two of the three warriors had noticed us and fired at my comrade as I managed to pull him out of the way just in time. As we kept running and the warriors, all three as one now, I remembered the short throwing knives in my belt. I managed to throw two before they fired: one hitting a warrior in the face, making his shot wide, the other landing perfectly down the barrel of its gauss blaster/life force thingy. The timing of it, hitting just before he fired, setting off an explosion in its face, sent the shiny golden robot flying into the canyon wall. The remaining one had just turned its attention to us, so reaction, and thus its shot, was slow and missed. As we closed the distance, a Lascannon shot pierced through its body. It fell to the ground without hesitating. The remaining warrior took aim and fired, its shot skimming my shoulder pad as I dodged left. Then my comrade did a very clever thing. While I was slowing my pace, throwing knifes at the golden robots, he had sprinted with full speed in a loop left and around to try and flank them; him coming from the side while I ploughed forward. So it was at this point that he kangaroo kicked at the big black weapon in its hands. It held its grip but recoiled, and by the time it had re-adjusted and fired it was too late. I was already in the air, somersaulting, beam sword drawn in one hand, free in the other. Landed in front of the warrior, kicked its weapons sideways to put off his aim as I used my free hand to grab his head and stab my beam weapon into his neck, then spin around clutching my weapon with both hands, cutting several wires in his throat, then cutting through the green wire that connected through his gun. My comrade then shouldered him sideways before I cut through his right elbow, destroying his chances of using his green death ray thingy. While I did this my comrade had gained his footing, now seeing that the Necron was stunned and pretty much defenceless, and tackled the big hunk of metal to the ground. I quickly jumped onto the stunned robots stomach, ripped off the purple plate that protected the centre of his chest, raised my beam sword high, facing downwards, and stabbed him straight into the a mesh of unprotected wires and electronics, sending sparks flying. The green lights in the Necrons eye died as he went limb. Me and my comrade looked to others just in time to see as, with one Necron down, the other readied his aim and attempted to fire a close range shot just as both well aimed and well-timed and well-aimed pulse rifle shot went through his shoulder, making his arm go limb, and making the weapon too heavy to carry with one arm. The two fire warriors took advantage of this. One kangaroo kicked him in the chest, sending his to the floor, the other leap-frogging over his teammate onto the grounded Necrons chest, holding his beam sword with two hand and slicing through the robots neck, sending an explosion of sparks and the metal-being went limb. Even so the only remaining marine ran over and fired his flamer into the fallen robot, melting wires and circuits, meaning that it couldn't get back up. Then, finally, after what seemed like an eternity, there was silence. The sound of shots from pulse rifles and bolt guns and railguns and sniper drones and rocket launchers and Lascannons and plasma rifles and heavy bolters and explosions finally ended. The silence was eerie after such an event, and received looks of fear and relief at the same time. Every head turned toward the mouth of the valley to see what would come next, what would be next in line to try and destroy us. All heads turned to see not an army of robots, but just one. There, stood perfectly at the centre of the mouth of the canyon, stood a Cryptek. In one hand he held a massive staff, in the other, a weird looking orb that had tubes connecting it to the back of his arm. He looked at us, all of us, not as much sizing us up but scanning, getting to know his enemy. And, with that, nodded. Then a green light flashed over him from the ground and he was gone. Teleported away, just like the Overlord when he was close to death. Except he wasn't running for his life: he was examining us, getting to know his enemy. Then, once again, if you ignored to faint sounds of the imperials fighting the rest of the Necron wave, there was silence. The commander radioed in to the ship above and everyone held their breath "this is crisis battle-suit XV8 calling in to Sept Va'casha orca drop ship. Is Necron assault held?" a transmitting came in, faint, from the drop ship hanging in just out of the atmosphere. "This is Orca drop ship of Sept Va'casha calling in to XV8 Crisis battle-suit. We have confirmed that your work has been done. The remaining forces of Necrons are being handled by the imperial guard regiment stationed at the barracks. We are approaching your location for pick-up. Good job boys. Well done." And with that, the canyon exploded with cries of joy and cheering, cheers of the Greater Good and success. Mission accomplished.

Conclusion:

(Captains data transition log)

After the remaining Tau and Gue'vesa forces collected into the drop ship, A number count was taken. The XV8 Crisis battle-suit pilot (who everyone called commander) was promoted to official XV8 Crisis Battle-suit Commander, and future leader of the Sept. the XV88 broadside battle suit who retained injures was treated and is making a swift recovery. The other only received minor injuries and is to be ready for next deployment. Eleven Fire warriors of the original twenty two had survived and one Shas'ui of two. Two remain in recovery and will be ready for next deployment, as with the rest. Reinforcements have been sent to cover the damage. Of the lone surviving tactical marine, he has been promoted to sergeant and set with his own squad of marines. The lone surviving tactical assault marine is currently in intensive care for his wounds. The destroyed sniper drones have been replaced and the controller in being treated for his wounds and will be fitted with a translated robotic leg. The devastator plasma cannon wielder has been re-placed and a new sergeant put in charge of the squad. The ex-sergeant of said squad, Novillus Jivaa, has now been placed in a command squad as a supporting role, equipped with a plasma gun. The piranha has been shined and polished and will be ready for deployment. The surviving Shas'ui has been promoted to rank of Cadre Fire blade. From status reports of other Tau units stationed in battle with him they recommend that he will be an excellent Cadre, more than worthy of directing fire warriors into battle. At the Imperial Barracks, the objective the team were defending, we sent a peace treaty, offering them a place in the Tau army and playing the role as Va'casha Gue'vesa. At first they refused, but the squads of infiltrated XV15 and XV25 stealth suits in the perimeter convince them other-wise. The mission was a great success, despite heavy causalities. Now awaiting new orders until further notice.

(Transition log out)

END OF PART 1 


End file.
